One of the fastest ways to drive traffic to your brand new blog is to make comments on more established blogs in your niche.

It’s a really simple concept and fairly easy to do. You do a little research to find some active blogs in your niche. To be considered active a blog should have two things, fairly regular posts, the most recent no more than a week old, and a few comments on some of it’s posts. With replies, otherwise it’s a dead-end conversation.

Oops, this blog hasn’t been too active lately.

This isn’t about those Spam comments everyone gets on their blogs, it’s about those innocent mistakes made by well meaning beginning bloggers.

First No No

No Gravatar or other icon. Don’t you like to know who you’re talking too? So do the people reading your comment. It’s really easy to get a Gravatar, just sign up for a free account and upload a picture of yourself. Every time you make a blog comment you’re building your brand.

Second No No

Making generic comments. You know the ones, “Hey, I really like your blog!” and the like, that don’t have anything to with what the post is about. Don’t just agree or disagree, tell them why you do. Politely, of course, if you disagree.

Third No No

Linking to your lead capture page. Sure, it sounds like a good idea, cut straight to the chase. The thing is, when you allow comments on you blog it’s because you want to have a conversation with your readers, not promote their biz opp. Let your blog lead them to your capture pages.

If your blog commenting efforts aren’t having the desired effect a couple of quick tweaks may be all you need.

Mike